New sports bar to open in Winchester

By Rachel Mahoney

2:49 pm Friday, December 18, 2015

Jasmine Curtis, kitchen manager of the new Green Turtle sports bar in Kernstown Commons, holds a plate of buffalo nachos inside the new establishment located beside the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. The sports bar will open for business at 11 a.m. Monday. Rich Cooley/Daily

Kernstown Commons will soon offer visitors a new spot to catch the game and grab some grub when the Greene Turtle opens there on Monday.

With a TV at every booth, co-owner and franchisee Steve Nerangis said the restaurant will provide fans with a reliable sports bar hub that would complement Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. He said games shown at the theater in the past had drawn huge crowds, but weekends are too busy to play host to both moviegoers and sports fans.

The Greene Turtle first opened for limited hours on Dec. 15 so customers could purchase merchandise, memberships and gift cards. In preparation for the holidays, Nerangis said that many customers have taken advantage of those hours to buy up plenty of gift cards. Once the restaurant opens, a promotional event will give the first 100 customers one $10 gift card per month for a year.

Greene Turtle’s website lists 44 locations in several states around the mid-Atlantic region. Nerangis said that unlike the Alamo, he and co-owners Lisa Limoges and Nick Nerangis Jr. didn’t have to introduce the brand to Winchester residents since many people had grown familiar with Greene Turtles at the Verizon Center or in Leesburg.

“It’s a brand that we’ve been around for a long time and we really enjoyed going there ourselves, so we thought it’d be a nice addition to the area,” Steve Nerangis said.

The building used to be retail space for Sportsmans Liquidation, so Nerangis said that made setting up the Greene Turtle easier from a construction standpoint. But between the needs of the restaurant itself and the Alamo close by, the owners decided to expand the parking lot to accommodate more customers. Between the theater, hotel and other restaurants, Nerangis said the Greene Turtle is helping to fully flesh out Kernstown Commons.

“We’re really pretty close to full right now which is exciting – that’s been a process that we’ve been working on,” he said. “It’s nice to see things start to wind down in terms of leasing space.”

Greene Turtle offers a selection of American food and crowd-pleasing grill options like burgers, tacos and ribs – with plenty of crab and Old Bay dishes from its origins in Maryland.

Beer aficionados will appreciate the restaurant’s Mug Club with various rewards and monthly events and Baltimore-based brewery Heavy Seas’ Shell Raiser pale ale – brewed to be the restaurant’s house beer.

Besides providing a new sports bar with a Maryland cuisine flair to the Winchester area, Nerangis said the restaurant will also give back to the community with contributions to local charities and discounts for a team of the week program.

“We thought Greene Turtle really aligned with our values as far as community service and giving back to our guests,” he said.